{"id":10347,"date":"2022-07-09T20:11:39","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T18:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=10347"},"modified":"2022-07-09T20:12:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T18:12:07","slug":"protesters-storm-sri-lankan-presidents-house-set-fire-to-prime-ministers-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/protesters-storm-sri-lankan-presidents-house-set-fire-to-prime-ministers-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters storm Sri Lankan president&#8217;s house, set fire to prime minister\u2019s home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Thousands of protesters have broken into the Sri Lankan prime minister\u2019s private residence and set it on fire, hours after they stormed the president\u2019s official residence in one of the biggest\u00a0anti-government marches\u00a0in the island country.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The protests turned violent amid public anger over the deepening economic crisis as the country of 22 million people is facing severe food, fuel, and power crises. This is the country&#8217;s worst financial turmoil in seven decades. Local reports said that the people are \u201cabsolutely fed up without food, gas or fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Protesters\u00a0were seen\u00a0swimming in the presidential palace&#8217;s pool and cooking in the kitchen while holding the country&#8217;s national flags. Some people lay on beds, and others made \u201cstatements\u201d from the conference room that the prime minister and president must immediately quit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Protesters storm President House in Sri Lanka as the economic crisis worsens. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SriLanka?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SriLanka<\/a> witnessed one of the largest anti-government marches on July 9 amid the worst food, fuel and power crisis <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CICR0FGdKv\">pic.twitter.com\/CICR0FGdKv<\/a><\/p>&mdash; IRIA (@IRIA_Research) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IRIA_Research\/status\/1545739783581962240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 9, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At least 31 people, including two police officers, have been injured in the protests, according to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called an emergency meeting of political party leaders and\u00a0requested the speaker to summon parliament. He said that he will resign only when all parties have agreed on a new government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday in this country we have a fuel crisis, a food shortage, we have the head of the World Food Program coming here and we have several matters to discuss with the IMF. Therefore, if this government leaves there should be another government,\u201d Wickremesinghe said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/SriLanka-protests.jpeg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/SriLanka-protests.jpeg?resize=831%2C554&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10349\" width=\"831\" height=\"554\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/SriLanka-protests.jpeg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/SriLanka-protests.jpeg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/SriLanka-protests.jpeg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/SriLanka-protests.jpeg?resize=589%2C392&amp;ssl=1 589w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 831px) 100vw, 831px\" \/><\/a><figcaption><em><sup>Protesters gather in a street leading to the president&#8217;s official residence in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 9, 2022. (Image Credit: Amitha Thennakoon\/AP)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sri Lankan president to step down on July 13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he will step down from his post on July 13, the parliament\u2019s speaker announced late at night after a dramatic day that saw tens of thousands of people protesting on the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a video statement Rajapaksa had informed him that he will step down from his post. \u201cThe decision to step down on 13 July was taken to ensure a peaceful handover of power,\u201d Abeywardena said. \u201cI, therefore, request the public to respect the law and maintain peace,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The news of the president&#8217;s decision triggered celebratory fireworks in different parts of Colombo city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/sri-lanka.jpeg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/sri-lanka.jpeg?resize=837%2C523&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sri Lanka Protests\" class=\"wp-image-10350\" width=\"837\" height=\"523\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/sri-lanka.jpeg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/sri-lanka.jpeg?resize=300%2C188&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/sri-lanka.jpeg?resize=768%2C480&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 837px) 100vw, 837px\" \/><\/a><figcaption><em><sup>Protesters in Sri Lanka are outraged over the country\u2019s lingering food and fuel shortages. (Image Credit: REUTERS)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Protesters break into President House and private residence of Sri Lankan Prime Minister, set it on fire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,1],"tags":[137,75,134,29,113,277,291],"class_list":["post-10347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","tag-asia","tag-conflict","tag-economy","tag-protest","tag-security","tag-sri-lanka","tag-violence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/SriLanka-crisis-July2022.jpeg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-2GT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10347"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10353,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10347\/revisions\/10353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}